Secure storage and transmission of data has become a critical component of data communication. Individuals, businesses, corporations, governments, etc. rely on digital information to conduct daily business and even to communicate with others. Often, mission critical information is stored and/or transmitted on unsecure networks and entities need to ensure that unauthorized individuals do not obtain access to that data. As a result of these increasing security needs, many forms of data encryption have been developed. Encryption is a cryptographic process to transform plaintext into ciphertext, based on an encryption algorithm key. The plaintext can be deduced using a decryption algorithm and the same or corresponding key. Generally, there are two classes of cryptographic algorithms: symmetric key cryptography and asymmetric key cryptography. Symmetric key cryptography uses the same key for both encryption and decryption. Asymmetric key cryptography utilizes different keys for encryption and decryption. The key used for encryption is commonly referred to as a “public key,” while the key for decryption is commonly referred to as a “private key.” The public key is made available to anyone that wants to encrypt data for delivery to a specific individual. The private key is not made public and used to decrypt the data encrypted with the public key.
Even with the various cryptography solutions, current systems do not allow for a distributed, fault tolerant system in which secure data can be efficiently transmitted from a single source and accessed by multiple clients without the source having knowledge or direct communication with the clients.
While implementations are described herein by way of example, those skilled in the art will recognize that the implementations are not limited to the examples or drawings described. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit implementations to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.